Margins for small businesses are often very narrow, so it is absolutely imperative that any technology investment gives a strong ROI as soon as possible. That’s why choosing the right document management for small business software is so important.
Small business document management carries some challenges that are similar to those faced by larger organizations. Whether it is a family-owned store or a growing startup, SMBs have a set of pain points that require specific document management solutions.
Chaotic legacy document storage and filing systems, lack of structure, risk of losing information through loss or damage to hard copies, and loss of productivity because of the additional time it takes to wade through a messy file cabinet are all issues that many small businesses have to confront.
So what is the best DMS for small companies? And how can a small business ensure that they are getting the most out of their document management system from the start?
The answer to the second question is collaboration with an expert partner like TEAM IM. TEAM IM brings experience migrating information to digital and cloud environments as well as integrating DMS technology with the key applications and tools that make your business run.
As for the first question, the short answer is M-Files. And as for a more detailed answer, here’s why:
As small businesses start, they often grab the most affordable document management system available to them, even if that system is not set up to adjust with new technologies or keep up with the needs of a successful and growing organization.
The problem with taking that kind of bare-bones approach is that information overload can set in, overwhelming the bandwidth you’ve established for managing your content. File cabinets fill up, low-tier subscription digital storage runs out, and physical, on-premise servers can get damaged.
Something that legacy document management solutions often lack is file version control software. That means that people collaborating on a project may be making changes and adjustments to a document that no one else is aware of until it's too late and costly rework is required.
Those kinds of miscommunications can also lead to accidental compliance violations and audit trails that are unclear. That can mean your business facing costly fines or losing the trust of your customer base.
Additionally, without a modern DMS, you miss out on potential for SMB workflow automation that will relieve your employees of the time-consuming and repetitive parts of their jobs that fill significant parts of their weeks with busywork — necessary busywork, but busywork nonetheless.
Functions like invoice approval automation or digital on-boarding processes among others makes life easier for your team while reducing the risk of human error exponentially. But in order to see those benefits, you need the right DMS.
Utilizing M-Files for small teams takes all of the previously detailed pain points and resolves them one by one. The myriad of ways that M-Files can help a small business streamline workflows and key processes is not to be underestimated.
A big challenge for small businesses can be how to organize business files. The problem is that documents are often stored and made discoverable based on file type. By putting metadata front and center, M-Files allows you to store and search up documents and data based on what it is instead of file type.
That means that instead of going through app by app to find pertinent information about a client or project, you can do one search in M-Files that will grab everything with the desired metadata tab, allowing you to utilize information from contracts, correspondences, and even meeting minutes with just one click.
Metadata file organization creates a single, unified source of truth for your business. Everyone saves and accesses data from the same system, so you don’t have two people working with one set of documents while a third person works on the same project with no access to what the first two people are doing.
Related to that last point, SMB records management with M-Files is vastly more consistent and traceable than is possible with many legacy systems. Maintaining version control on documents with more than one contributor is an absolute necessity and being able to audit the work your company puts forward is key to identifying errors and complying with regulatory organizations.
As a team member pulls up a document to work on, the changes that person makes are recorded. Then if an error is identified, the person that made the mistake can easily track back and fix their error.
When it comes to audits, one need only use the metadata powered search function to pull up all the relevant information and pass it along to the auditor. It makes compliance and error recognition and prevention so much easier.
Automation is a major benefit to adopting digital document workflows. There are so many tasks that are extremely necessary but take up an inordinate amount of your employees’ time because they are very repetitive. Through automation, those repetitive tasks can be resolved in a fraction of the time with a level of accuracy that a human cannot provide on their own.
When you look at a step-by-step breakdown of key workflows like invoice approvals, chances are good that you will spot a bottleneck or two where everything slows to a crawl. M-Files allows you to automate around those bottlenecks — and you won’t even need to know how to code to make it happen.
M-Files offers a great opportunity to embrace a paperless office solution, but even without hard copies of every document you need to have a place to store your information. If you prefer to keep your on-premise servers or transition into the cloud or take a hybrid approach, M-Files can facilitate your storage needs.
Basically, you can decide if you want to maintain your current digital storage solution or if you want to change things up. The versatility of M-Files allows small businesses to choose the solution they are most comfortable with while ensuring that the best possible options are available for important operations like secure client document sharing.
It cannot be understated that any document management for small businesses solution must be cost effective. To ensure you get the best value for your needs, M-Files offers scalable licensing. If your business experiences increased seasonal business volume or you simply grow beyond your original needs, you can adjust your M-Files license.
That isn’t something you can get from less thorough or versatile document management platforms. It ensures that your DMS budget is always used effectively and opens the door for regular ROI dividends.
Every business needs to manage their documents and having an intelligent DMS makes a huge difference in what you are able to accomplish both in your day-to-day operations and in achieving your long-term efficiency goals.
Here are just a few real-world use cases that demonstrate the power of M-Files:
There have been a lot of pain points and benefits involving small business document management here, and it can be a complicated subject — that’s where working with trusted experts in the field of document management makes a world of difference.
TEAM IM brings a level of knowledge that is rare and invaluable. Breaking down workflows and system requirements to identify how to best implement M-Files without disrupting a business’s operations is no small feat, but it is something TEAM IM has the experience and expertise to do.
You can even trust TEAM IM to make use of Microsoft 365 integration with your M-Files if your business uses SharePoint or other key Microsoft programs. Microsoft and M-Files have developed a partnership and TEAM IM can help you take advantage of it.
Some small businesses don’t have dedicated IT departments or may be worried about optimizing the usage of a new DMS. As part of TEAM IM M-Files support and implementation, training seminars for your employees and robust service plans that vary from prepaid hours to 24/7 support coverage are factored into your digital transformation.
Basically, thanks to years of experience, TEAM IM has the know-how to make a small business’ DMS improvements painless and effective.
This DMS Calculator will help you calculate your return on investment from implementing and adopting M-Files.
M-Files implementation brings so many benefits to small businesses. The level of efficiency that comes with an intelligent DMS cannot be overstated. The minutes and seconds that M-Files can shave off the tasks that your team needs to complete add up to a significant amount of time saved very quickly.
A scalable DMS for growth allows you to make sure that your need for document management never exceeds your capabilities — overburdened and chaotic legacy document management can get overwhelmed by an increase in demand very easily.
Document management for small businesses presents unique challenges, but with the help of TEAM IM, you can use M-Files to rise above those challenges and get the kind of ROI that will help your small business stay in the black for years to come.